PATRICK BARKHAM was born in 1975 in Norfolk and was educated at Cambridge University. He is the natural history writer at The Guardian and author of Badgerlands and The Butterfly Isles: A Summer in Search of Our Emperors and Admiral, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje prize. He was born in 1975 in Norfolk and was educated at Cambridge University. He is a Natural History writer for the Guardian where he has worked for the last 10 years, reporting on everything from the Iraq War to climate change.